Jim May

Graduating from St. Lawrence University in May of 2014, my four-year experience taught me an extraordinary amount. Not only did I get a top-class education, particularly in mathematics and economics, but I also learned fundamental components of life that can be essential inside and outside of the workplace. Being a part of the St. Lawrence soccer and track teams taught me that motivation, teamwork, and hard work on top of years of crafting and perfecting your fundamental skills, can lead to endless possibilities. This was proven to me with the consistent national success that both I, and the programs as a whole, had over my four years of attending college. As a bonus, they also developed my leadership, organizational, and time management skills that I will continue to use for the rest of my life. In my post-collegiate career, I worked at First Niagara Bank in customer service for just over a year. Dealing with upwards of 100 different customer's a day, I learned the world of banking rapidly. This experience, along with my college education credentials, led me to being hired as a commercial credit analyst at M&T Bank. From April of 2016 to current day, I honed my credit skills and learned what makes a business successful or unsuccessful in the CSS and Loan Analysis departments at M&T. In addition to the middle market, I have also spent a significant amount of time underwriting in the private banking sector which led to learning how the two intertwine. The support that I receive at M&T has facilitated my growth as a professional and resulted in additional responsibilities such as analyzing more complex credits, helping train the less experienced analysts, and filling in as the active team leader when he was out of the office for an extended period of time. My growth at M&T has led to my current position of Business Banking Senior Underwriter where I am changing my focus to small businesses which I have I have always had a special place in my heart for. In this position, I adjudicate new and/or annual review credit requests with group credits up to $5,000,000 using individual lending authority and analyze each loan applicant’s financial condition, cash flow and credit history in order to make an appropriate lending decision within the individual lending authority. With lending authority of $500,000, it's a great opportunity for me to take more responsibility in the lending process. I look forward to continuing to work with the Business Banking Credit Center portfolio management team to grow my skills.